The McCain Surge?

John McCain's campaign is beginning to make a bit of a comeback according to the latest Gallup survey:

PRINCETON, NJ -- Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani continues to lead the national race for the Republican presidential nomination, although his support has faded to one of its lowest readings of the year. Former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson, who recently announced his candidacy, holds steady in second place, 8 percentage points behind the frontrunner. Meanwhile, Arizona Sen. John McCain has continued to recover from his early August doldrums and is in third place, only 4 points behind Thompson and more than 10 points ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Romney's mini-bounce after the Iowa straw poll in early August appears to have been short-lived.

In general, support for McCain has shown gradual improvement over the past month, and Americans' opinions of McCain are at their highest point since May. McCain is now rated as favorably by Americans as Giuliani, and more so than the less-well known Thompson or Romney.

Gallup now has Giuliani at 30%, Thompson at 22%, McCain at 18% and Mitt Romney at 7%. Romney is wasting his time and money. I don't think he's ever polled in double digits nationally, and I doubt that even a win in Iowa and New Hampshire could turn that around. He's just not a nationally attractive candidate. He only seems to do well in small states where he can pour millions into advertising.

The race will be between Rudy and Fred. McCain still has too much baggage from the past to recover his standing with conservatives, and since they'll make up the largest part of the primary voters, third place is the best he can hope for.

Yesterday I watched a DVD that was produced by HBO a few months after 9/11. It was a memorial of that terrible day and prominently featured Rudy and his staff and their actions on 9/11 and in the subsequent days. Watching that DVD gave me a whole new appreciation for Rudy's leadership in those dark days and how he helped pull the city together. Although I'm still leaning toward Fred Thompson, that DVD made me much more comfortable with the idea of Rudy Giuliani as the GOP candidate, and I believe I could support him without reservation should he be the winner.

America needs a leader and not a nanny, and there's certainly no one on the Democrat side that fills that requirement.